Now, if Brown only had intended for his words to sound both gigantic and Titanic. Instead, he was just doing what he does so politely and so thoroughly — answering a reporter’s question.

Even when the Lakers fail — and they failed spectacularly on this Christmas Day — they’re interesting.

No, make that especially when the Lakers fail — and this 88-87 loss to Chicago was epic — they’re interesting.

Who says the Clippers now are more entertaining than these guys?

Leading, 87-86, with 16.9 seconds to go, the Lakers put the ball by design in Bryant’s palms. The shot clock was off. All the Lakers had to do was keep possession and force the Bulls to foul.

“One-point game,” Brown explained later. “I’m going to give my best player a chance to win the ballgame.”

Bryant, though, threw away the ball and the game.

When Chicago hurried a trapping double-team at him, he jumped and attempted to lob a pass to Pau Gasol, who was less than committed to rushing in to aid his teammate. Luol Deng broke up the poor pass, giving Bryant his eighth turnover and setting up Derrick Rose’s winning basket.

Bryant said he had a “miscommunication” with Gasol and tried to pass because he “realized they weren’t going to foul. They were just trapping.”

Brown wasn’t so certain.

“The ball went to the right player’s hands,” the coach said. “I’m not sure. I have not asked him why he jumped to make the pass. But, yeah, we would have liked for him to hold on to it, and then for them to foul him.”

At that exact moment, we officially missed Phil Jackson for the first time.

See, had Jackson said those words, they would have been said with purpose — if not poison — the idea being to tweak Bryant. Jackson would have been expertly playing the media, and the media would have been gladly playing along.

There would have been rebuttals and headlines and drama. “SportsCenter” would be repeating the comments 24/7 today and each of ESPN’s 15 daily debate shows would be grinding every syllable into a fine powder.

The difference? Jackson is an 11-time NBA champion coach and celebrated master of minds. Brown once coached LeBron James to the Finals and studied business at the University of San Diego.

Where Jackson would have been manipulating, Brown simply was conversating, just answering a question. Honestly and completely. Oh so completely.

Yeah, things have changed around here under Brown. The historically offensive Lakers are now defensively minded. They promise to trudge and muck, play a game that’s about as pleasant, at times, as dentistry.

“We’re not going to be a finesse team,” Brown said. “We have players who are capable of doing that stuff. But we’re going to be a defensive team, and we’re going to be a presence on that end of the floor.”

The Lakers strangled the Bulls on Sunday to erase a seven-point halftime deficit, Chicago helping the home team by emphasizing the frequency rather than the accuracy of its third-quarter attempts.

In place of the suspended Andrew Bynum, Brown went with Josh McRoberts. Three weeks ago, there would have been a better chance of the Lakers’ starting five including Mayor McCheese.

But that’s where this team, minus Bynum for now and Lamar Odom for good, stands today. With Devin Ebanks starting and Troy Murphy contributing and Andrew Goudelock playing a role.

This might take some getting used to, folks.

The Lakers will be a lot of things with Brown as their coach. Sexy, however, won’t be one of those things.

“It’s gonna be ugly,” Bryant said. “Offense, we’re not worried about that at all. We’ve got enough guys that can score the ball…Defensively, rebounding is what our main emphasis is, and that’s what it’s going to be.”

Brown called his preferred approach “playoff-style basketball.” He also noted that “you gotta be able to play rugged.”

The Lakers did that for most of the second half in their season opener. Until the final minutes, when they played less rugged and more ragged.

The Phil Jackson Era officially is dead. Things have changed a lot at Staples Center. This is Mike Brown’s team today.

Jackson’s giant chair is gone from the sideline. So is his enormous shadow. The Lakers no longer are taking direction from a legend. Now, they just have a coach.

Jeff Miller has been a sports columnist since 1998, having previously written for the Palm Beach Post, South Florida Sun-Sentinel and Miami Herald. He began at the Register in 1995 as beat writer for the Angels.

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